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- [00:00]
A
Oh, sweetie, you got a little Mars cocktail on your beautiful gray dress there.
- [00:04]
B
Can we get that for free?
- [00:05]
A
What? The Mars cocktail. Can we get one of those for free? Cause she spilled a little bit on her dress. Sure. Great. Cause if you said no, I would have gone home and got on Yelp and said that I found a Lego head in my corn. I've done that to a lot of places. It works.
- [00:19]
B
Tbtl. I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it. And what's it? It seems weird and scary to me.
- [00:34]
A
Objection. On the grounds that I'm like what?
- [00:37]
B
You know, people think I'm fancy, but I like nothing more than to end the day with one of these fine hamburger sandwiches from the good people at the McDonald's. You think you're too cool for school, but I got a news flash for you, Walter Cronkite. You aren't well.
- [00:56]
A
I've gotta run. I can hear the blender crying. Coming, baby. Well, all right. Hello, good morning and welcome. Welcome, everyone, to a Tuesday edition of tbtl, the show that just might be too beautiful to live.
- [01:10]
B
I got the time if you got the diapers.
- [01:12]
A
My name's Luke Burbank. I am your host.
- [01:14]
B
I'd rather check myself before I wreck myself.
- [01:17]
A
Coming to you from the Madrona Hill Studio, perched high above the mighty Columbia, where the rain appears to have abated, at least around here. So that's good. We are drying out. We did not have any hot tub covers take flight this morning, which is kind of a w. We're trying to harness that positive energy and roll right on into episode 4620 in a collector series.
- [01:43]
B
Let the fun begin.
- [01:45]
A
Last night, I couldn't decide which Rob Reiner film to watch, so I watched the Princess Bride and Spinal Tap, and let me just tell you, those are a couple of good films. I need you to understand something so good. Check it out. I noticed a bunch of stuff, too, that I hadn't noticed in previous viewings of those movies. Maybe we'll talk about that. Also, the Roomba Company has declared bankruptcy.
- [02:08]
B
Does this sound like a musical robot?
- [02:10]
A
What does this mean for Randy the Roomba who lives in my house and who I still use to this day? He's still. He's on a schedule. He's out there. He's vacuuming. He's doing his best as your mama's forehead. Will he be bricked soon? We'll talk about that. And we're gonna talk to this guy. Longest running Cobra of the show, maybe best known for his depictions of the tall ships. He came in with a ton of energy on this Tuesday morning, which I was appreciative of.
- [02:38]
B
Okay, let's do it.
- [02:39]
A
He's Andrew Walsh, and he's joining me right now. Good morning, my friend.
- [02:42]
B
Apparently, I'm also a British rocker. On an airplane in the movie Free Jack. Is that on an air. Is that an airplane noise I hear in the background? I know it's Mick Jagger.
- [02:52]
A
I think it's maybe an F1 car.
- [02:54]
B
Oh, really?
- [02:55]
A
I think the premise of Free Jack is you can jump around either, I think, in. In time, maybe, or in space. And I feel like the. Is it Emilio Estevez?
- [03:06]
B
I feel like we got obsessed with that drop for a while there, but I don't remember exactly why. I don't remember why it entered our universe.
- [03:13]
A
Well, I just always thought, you know, do you know why it entered our universe? Because when I was a kid, my friend John DeYoung thought that that was the corniest thing ever when Mick Jagger goes, all right, let's do it.
- [03:23]
B
Let's do it.
- [03:24]
A
All right, let's do it. And he used to just say that to me as just like a joke all the time. All right, let's do it.
- [03:30]
B
Okay.
- [03:31]
A
And so he kind of lived in my head for many years. And then, I don't know, at some point, I just thought, oh, I'll go grab that. I was looking for a drop. The plot of Freejack is, in 2009, the super wealthy achieve immortality by hiring bone jackers.
- [03:44]
B
What year is this, by the way? What futuristic year is this?
- [03:48]
A
It's the year of slab jacking. It's 2009.
- [03:53]
B
I love that.
- [03:53]
A
I love that.
- [03:55]
B
Good point.
- [03:56]
A
That just went right by me.
- [03:58]
B
In the year 2009, the economy, the.
- [04:02]
A
Wealthy will hire bone jackers mercenaries equipped with time travel devices to snatch people from the past just prior to the moment of their death for use as substitute baby bodies.
- [04:14]
B
Oh.
- [04:15]
A
Those who escape are known as free Jacks, are considered and are considered less than human under the law. It's actually kind of a good plot for a movie. I'm not going to lie.
- [04:23]
B
Kind of interesting to be.
- [04:24]
A
Think about it, right? Like, so I. I think Emilio Estevez's character is like, he's an F1. He's a Formula One racer who's about to die. So they go back in time and they bonejack him out of the car. Now, I don't. I don't think Mick Jagger is in the car. So I don't know what's happening in the background, what that noise is you heard. But I mean, I'm sure that the execution leaves something to be desired with this movie. But as a plot, as a character, think about it. The person was going to be dead anyway. So at that point, you know, are we, you know, is it ethically okay to grab someone and to bone jack someone? Andrew. And to harvest their parts when they were going to be dead anyway?
- [05:03]
B
Get consent. Certainly that's an important part of bone jacking. Two movies that I saw as a kid that are made for children that had huge sort of, I would say kind of emotional impact or at least like really wowed me in some way or another. One you'll probably have gone on this ride with me. But the Last Starfighter, I remember when I saw that. Just that that whole premise blew my mind. That you could just.
- [05:29]
A
Kid. Right. Who is so good at a video game.
- [05:31]
B
Yeah.
- [05:32]
A
That they need him to be. I. I'm going to be honest with you. I don't think I've ever seen the Last Starfighter, but it was big in the culture.
- [05:39]
B
It's got the Music man in it too. And I was already familiar with the Music Man. It's not Preston, just to be very clear. Not. It's not the same universe as the Music man, although I'm sure somebody has put together that theory which would be very interesting. We got aliens. Aliens right here in River City with a. And I think I got a lot of things wrong there, but yeah. And the kid is not playing video games at home for some reason. This is very important to me or an important detail. He I Geez, I haven't seen it since I think I was a kid and I think I've only seen it once. But I just remember he's playing like Gattaca or one of the Galaga, one of those games, you know, like I.
- [06:18]
A
Never knew what that game was called because the script was so confusing. Is it Gaxclica? Is it Galaglikska?
- [06:27]
B
He's playing something like that, but at like an arcade style game, like outside. I remember it must be like, it must take place in California or some sort of like kind of milder weather state. Because I feel, feel like the. What do you call it? You were talking about these recently. You did a story on them. What do you call like a single standalone arcade style machine. You call it a cabinet. Is that what the collectors call it? Or whatever. And so it's just like one of those standing up, like outside of some sort of a Convenience mart. And the kid is just playing.
- [06:54]
A
Yeah, it's called Starfighter, according to the Internet.
- [06:56]
B
And that would be the game he's playing. And he does such a good job that the Music man comes down. Only the Music man isn't the Music Man. He's an alien. And he says, we need somebody with your spaceship fan fighting skills to save the universe.
- [07:08]
A
Trouble up in Space City.
- [07:09]
B
That's right. That's what they should have called it. The other one, though. And I hesitate to go here, because I don't think you're gonna. I'm guessing you don't know about this. And then it's really gonna be up to me to describe the movie. But it's the Color Purple. Exactly. No, it was called Cloak and Dagger. Did you see a movie made for kids? But it's Dark af, and that means Afraid of Frankenstein.
- [07:36]
A
Nice. Michael John Higgins.
- [07:39]
B
Yes. Or Angry Frankenstein. What does he say? But anyway, does Cloak and Dagger ring any kind of a bell to you? It's about.
- [07:43]
A
It does, but in the sort of. In the same way. The last Starfighter, you got to remember, in. In those days, in the early 80s, I was very much prohibited from watching movies that were seen as, well, worldly in any way, which would just be like anything that wasn't. I don't know, from the 1950s, I guess. So I knew about cloak and dagger because I heard kids talking about it. I was afraid of the movie Cloak and Dagger because it sounded scary. Had a. Somebody in a cloak holding a dagger. That was my perception of the movie. When people. When kids were talking about cloak and dagger, I just pictured a guy in a cloak with the dagger. I was like, I want no part of it.
- [08:17]
B
You know what I'm just realizing. So, okay, the. The third movie that I really liked as a kid that hit me was a movie called the Robe. Did you see that? I did. Okay.
- [08:26]
A
Now, that one I saw.
- [08:27]
B
Trying to get it back into your. Thank you for bringing it back. I'm just realizing. So cloak and dagger. Like, I sort of remember people talking about the last Starfighter, cloak and dagger, for whatever reason. I'm not saying I'm. My memory is accurate here. It feels more like a. More like an individual memory for me. Like, I don't have social or cultural context for it. I just remember seeing it as a kid. Like, I don't know, I picked it out in the store and I brought it home. I don't. I don't remember hearing other kids talk about it, but. But I'm now just realizing a Through line between the two of them. I think Cloak and Dagger might also be the name of a video game in the movie Cloak and Dagger because the kids, basically, there's a kid who ends up having to do spycraft and there's a secret message or important documents or something that is sealed inside of like an NES style or Atari style cartridge. And so the kid has this cartridge and he has to get it into the right hands and keep it out of the wrong hands, even more importantly. And he's on this little mission, but like, there are some really dark scenes where like, he's in the back seat with like kind of a. A creepy older couple that remind me of the. The old people in Mulholland Drive, which would come out years later. And one of them takes off her glove and she's like kind of missing some fingers, which is kind of a shock scare sort of or something like. And there's just like. So it's not mythical like Cloak and dagger, but it's more like Cloak and dagger, like spycraft. But I remember it like, really, really affecting me. And I think I went back and watched it a few years ago and was like, oh, yeah, that shit's scary. Like, I think, I think as an adult, you're like, oh, yeah, that would scare me.
- [09:59]
A
As a child, I would have been absolutely terrified because I was so sheltered. I never. I didn't see anything that was even remotely scary. So I'm. And in this particular case, I'm grateful that my parents wouldn't let me see something like Cloak and Dagger. But there was a lot of stuff like that when I was a kid that I would hear about. I heard about the movie Porky's.
- [10:19]
B
I've never seen that.
- [10:20]
A
Yeah, I was like, I can't wait until I'm a grown up so I can watch Porky's.
- [10:24]
B
Yeah, so you can. All the candy you want and watch Porky's.
- [10:27]
A
That was really my plan for adulthood. And it hasn't come together the way I expected, but one day I'll. I'll go down and rent it. Also, something that we've talked about on the show a lot and that we. I kind of mentioned in passing yesterday is the, the way that as a kid, if you grew up in our generation, you had a sense of all these movies that you would never actually see, but because you would see the VHS covers constantly at the video store, I guess the modern equivalent of that would be the Netflix tile, in a way. But it's like those things rotate so much.
- [10:59]
B
I'm Laughing because I think I put this on my blueski account, which means you'll probably put it on your blueski account pretty soon, too.
- [11:05]
A
Less effect.
- [11:07]
B
I don't think you can be less than Three hearts on blue sky. But you remember the story that I'm sure we talked about on this show. I found it very interesting years ago now, the psychology, or like maybe the AI psychology, if you will, and you probably shouldn't, about the decisions that what is going to appear on those tiles based on the person using the app. So in other words, like, HBO might serve up like a scene of two characters for me from a movie, but they might serve up a scene of two different characters for you on the little advertising tile based on the things that you like. And I was flipping through HBO the other day looking for movies, and they had a tile for the movie Get Out. And on the tile was Kathryn Keener and her husband, the guy from the West, Bradley Whitford. Bradley Whitford. And I took a photo of it. I'm like, I am pretty sure I am getting this tile because I am a white. Because.
- [12:09]
A
That'S incredible.
- [12:10]
B
Right? Like, they are not the leads of the movie at all.
- [12:13]
A
They are not. No. That is. Although we do. We were quoting Bradley Whitford's character from that movie even this morning before soundcheck.
- [12:21]
B
We were. Oh, yes, right. Of course.
- [12:23]
A
He's trying to bro down and he's like, I would have voted for Obama three times.
- [12:27]
B
Yes. A third perfect possible.
- [12:29]
A
Yeah, the perfect synopsis of like a certain kind of well meaning but cringy white person.
- [12:34]
B
But is cringy.
- [12:35]
A
But they are not the stars of the movie.
- [12:37]
B
No, not.
- [12:37]
A
They should not be the tile. Unless Netflix. So white.
- [12:40]
B
I mean, maybe. Is it. What's her name? Is it Alison Williams? I'm blanking on her name. The other lead who is. Yeah. Anyway, like, maybe if it was her and her boyfriend or whatever. Like.
- [12:50]
A
Right.
- [12:50]
B
But it's just like those two characters are like, oh, well, this man is middle aged. This man is definitely middle aged and white. We see that he watches.
- [12:57]
A
I show you the one scene where Bradley Whitford is playing dart.
- [13:00]
B
Yeah, right. There's a scene where Bradley Whitford is watching Columbo. And that's what they showed me, him watching Columbo. They're like, that's right. This will draw you in.
- [13:11]
A
Did it work?
- [13:13]
B
No, it didn't. Although I like that movie. I don't really like scary movies, so it takes a lot for me to see a movie twice. I do think I watched the. That one another time because it gets. It gets kind of confusing. I remember, like, liking it the first time I watched it, but then a year or so later being like, wait, what happens in the basement again? So I think I went back to rewatch it, but I'm. I'm probably. I rewatched Weapons too, by the way. Weapons as well.
- [13:38]
A
I haven't seen it, but that is intense.
- [13:40]
B
You know what? I think that speaks to that.
- [13:42]
A
Just that ant lady with the glasses is enough to send a shiver down my spine.
- [13:46]
B
Well, because that movie. And I cannot remember the director's name. You probably have it at the right. At your fingertips. It's okay. If not, he's from that show, the Whitest Kids. You know, he was a. Oh, sure.
- [13:56]
A
I don't know his name, but.
- [13:57]
B
But, but, yeah, but, like, I think that that is interesting because I told you that, and I don't want to spoil it because that movie's kind of a special viewing experience, but. Zack Kreger. Oh, right, yeah. That movie gets so, so, so intense that kind of. By the end, when everything sort of, I'll just say, culminates, you're almost laughing, like, you're just like, this is so crazy. And we just got through. Not in a campy way. You just find. I've just never had that experience before, watching a horror movie and then in the last couple of scenes, just like, laughing out of a sort of sense of relief. And everything that's going on in the movie, it's just kind of a spectacle. And I think that. And that is where I'm like, oh, that's right. This kind of came from somebody who came up through the comedy world in a way. And I think that's just interesting.
- [14:42]
A
To get out is obviously, you know, Jordan created that. Yeah.
- [14:45]
B
Which is maybe why I'm thinking about them together in this way. And, like. And that's what made it rewatchable for me. I'm talking about weapons here. Is that once I sat through the really scary parts of the movie. It's a type of movie that, like, oh, that can't hurt me anymore, sort of. There are some movies that will always be scary because they're disturbing. Like the kid eating spaghetti out of a bathtub and gummoe. No, but, like, there are just some images that are just always going to be uncomfortable to watch. I didn't find weapons to be like that. I felt like weapons. Once you get through the horror of it the first time, then you're just like, oh, I can just appreciate this as, like, a well shot, well crafted movie that really does have humor in it, you know. And so I kind of enjoyed it on rewatch.
- [15:29]
A
I like the idea that I'm flipping through Netflix and it finds the scene in Gummoe where someone's playing poker for me.
- [15:34]
B
Right.
- [15:36]
A
What's the part of Julian Donkey Boy that will appeal to Luke Burbank?
- [15:39]
B
Still not allowed to watch it.
- [15:41]
A
Speaking of movies, man, I watched the Princess Bride and Spinal Tap last night.
- [15:44]
B
Yeah.
- [15:45]
A
And let's just start with the Princess Bride, if you've got a moment. Like, that is a phenomenal film. Like, I watched it because I wanted to honor Rob Reiner and because I had said I was going to on our show, I thought, you know, I should. I should do that because then I'll talk about it tomorrow. So I went into it being like, well, I said I was going to do this, so I might as well. And within 30 seconds, I was fully locked in on the film. Like, as a viewer, like, this wasn't, you know, in any way me sort of doing my homework or creating content for the show. I was just totally and completely. And I've seen that movie 20 times or something, Right.
- [16:21]
B
We did a. We did a watch along, right?
- [16:23]
A
Oh, right, Yeah. I mean, I have seen that movie so many times, and I was absolutely and totally entertained by the film from start to finish. I mean, one of the things. And I was watching it a little bit more, like, I was taking notes, which is odd, but I just wanted to try to remember some of the thoughts I was having. And, like, so I was. I was having a slightly more, I guess, academic approach to it. But one of the things I was really impressed by is how efficient the storytelling is. They've got to get so much done in the first, like, 40 minutes of the film. They've got to, like, set up the Fred Savage and the grandpa character. They've got to explain that Buttercup and Wesley have fallen in love, but then they've been separated. And there's this Dread Pirate Robert guy, and there's this Prince Humperdinck. And, like, they have to establish. And then there's these kind of burnouts who, you know, Wallace, Sean's character, Vasiti, is taking around a place. It's like you. Just by 39 minutes into the film, Wesley has been reunited with Buttercup. They're in the fire swamp. And we know who everyone is. And now we get to just, like, enjoy the rest of the film. Like, it's just from a filmmaking standpoint, it's a real, or I guess a storytelling standpoint. It's just really, really clever what they're doing. They just jump right in. Like, for instance, they don't do anything. They. They just. They go like, we're gonna tell you that there was this farm boy and this princess and that they were in love. And we don't need to give you hardly any backstory on it or evidence of it. We're just jumping right in. You know, like, they're just like, that has to be the. The jumping off point. We don't have 20 minutes to show you their thing or whatever.
- [17:52]
B
Like.
- [17:53]
A
But then also, I thought it was really smart, the set design. Like, when they're doing the. Like, there's the Cliffs of Despair where they're climbing up and everything. And then they have that big sword fight scene. Mandy Patankin and carry elves. And like, it's very like a. It's almost like a stage play. Like. And I could tell that they didn't even really try to make it hyper realistic. They almost tried to make it, like, I feel like they realized we're not going to be able to actually shoot this on the cliffs of Dover or whatever and. And like, go, you know, to Ireland or England or wherever that is. And like, so let's just kind of make it almost dreamlike and storybook and kind of not fairy tale and not. And like, make that a feature, not a bug which really works actually, you know, in the film. Like, it's just very smart. Like, they. They didn't try to do too much. They didn't try to make it like a super duper realistic scene out there. Like, yeah, it's a fairy tale and that's okay. And we're gonna kind of. We're gonna. We're gonna go with that. Wallace Sean Andrew was 43 years old. He was six years younger than us. I looked it up and it's. Luke.
- [18:56]
B
Would shocking would you say that that's inconceivable?
- [18:59]
A
I would say it's difficult for me to conceive of Wallace Shawn as Vicini in the Princess Bride being six years younger than we are. A mere babe.
- [19:09]
B
Well, if I was still George Costanza problem, right? Like, George Costanza was in his 30s, I believe. Like, well, in my rearview mirror, when.
- [19:17]
A
He was definitely the male pattern. Baldness is doing a lot of work there in terms of the aging process. But. But I mean, even so, I also looked up Peter Falk in that movie, the grandpa. He was. They think it was like 59 or 60.
- [19:34]
B
That scans about for me. Yeah. He's like.
- [19:36]
A
But that's also 10 years older than I am now.
- [19:39]
B
Yeah, yeah. Right.
- [19:40]
A
So it's just like, it's like a decade old. A mere 10 years older than I am right now is how old Peter Falk was when he made that movie. Also, Miracle Max has braces.
- [19:51]
B
Oh yeah. I can, I can sort of picture.
- [19:53]
A
I have never noticed he has like adult braces.
- [19:55]
B
Yeah, yeah, I have never noticed.
- [19:58]
A
I've never watched the Princess Bride. Well, I guess if we did a watch along maybe I have, but I, I don't remember watching it on a screen as big as the TV screen. I have.
- [20:05]
B
Do you remember we. We projected it on the wall of my studio.
- [20:08]
A
Oh yeah.
- [20:09]
B
You don't have any memory of this because you were coming off of some sort of work thing where you had not slept in like a long time. Like I remember. I gotta say we've done.
- [20:17]
A
I think I was maybe shooting some Microsoft stuff.
- [20:19]
B
Yeah, that's right. Because you were here in Seattle and you had just got that' right. You were burnt out. You and I have done 4TBTL as like kind of bonus gifts. We have done several watch alongs of movies including Fellowship of the Ring and some other things. I will say. And just out of honesty, I do feel like that was not our best one. And I'm not blaming. I mean you were totally burned out. I didn't have a lot to. It was such a good movie and none of us were really an expert on it. There was you, me and Genevieve and we projected it on the wall of my studio. I think we had just moved in here and there. A lot of the watch along was us being like, great movie. Yeah, right, Great, great movie.
- [21:01]
A
And then me lightly dozing off in.
- [21:03]
B
A small office meeting is a small little snort. The one thing I can't remember is there. Is there marriage in the princess?
- [21:13]
A
Marriage. Marriage is what brings us together today.
- [21:20]
B
As you were watching it, were there just a million things you're like, oh yeah. I say this in my like daily vernacular.
- [21:26]
A
Yes. I mean that's the thing. There are. I'm. I'm going to say there are at least 10 scenes that are amongst the top 100 iconic scenes in movie history. The like the, you know when, when he and, and Wallace Sean are sitting down at the table and he has the iocane powder and you know, you know, clearly I cannot pick the glass in front of me. I mean. Yes, that's incredible. The marriage scene. I believe that guy is credited as the incredible vicar or Something. There's like a weird name for the guy who says marriage. Funny. Like that scene, the Miracle Max. You know, true love is the greatest thing, except the nice MLT mutton, lettuce and tomato. And lettuce is crisp and the mutton is. That is so perky. I love that, like, just the Miracle Max scene alone could have like, made that movie.
- [22:16]
B
You know what I mean?
- [22:17]
A
And like, it's. Yeah.
- [22:18]
B
I can't think of the word liar without thinking the woman who only Carol Kane. Oh, wait, is that Carol Kane? I know that Carol Kane plays Miracle Max's wife, but, like, is she also the person.
- [22:28]
A
Oh, no, you're the one yelling boo.
- [22:30]
B
Oh, boo. Not liar. I'm sorry, you're a. Carol Kane does yell liar. I'm thinking of boo upstairs.
- [22:35]
A
Yeah, boo. I meant to look up how old that lady was.
- [22:40]
B
Yeah, she was. She was 29. The woman in the town square. You mean not Carol Kane? Right, right.
- [22:47]
A
No, that I actually looked. That I should look at. You will find it was gonna.
- [22:57]
B
You will find me booing at Mariners games like that. I'm not joking. Like, hey, I like this.
- [23:02]
A
Just a little. Little Louis Prima Brooklyn boogie. The next thing that my. Played by Marjorie Mason, the booing woman in the Princess Bride is the ancient Boer played by actress Marjorie Mason. It's gonna be too hard to figure out how old she was in that scene, but probably 23.
- [23:21]
B
You're right.
- [23:22]
A
Probably well younger than us.
- [23:24]
B
Let's see here. She. Wait, no, this can't be the right person. Years active 1927 to 2006. If so, if this is her, then she actually, she was not in her 20s or 30s at that time, I'll tell you that much.
- [23:40]
A
Also there the. The hat that Rob Reiner is wearing when he is Marty DeBurghy, the director of the Spinal Tap movie, is in Fred Savage's room.
- [23:55]
B
Oh, that's so fun. That's great.
- [23:58]
A
Yeah, I've never noticed that before until the. The very end of Princess Bride last night, which is nice little detail. And I was really thinking when. When this wrapped up last night, that I think it's the perfect film not to just not just to re litigate our watch party we did with it. But I really don't think there's anything about this. That film that I would change and I think based on like, the comedy in it, that the sort of. The sort of heartfelt nature of the film, the way that it, you know, describes sort of, I guess you would call it unconditional love and just all of it, like, I. I think it has to be one of the best movies of all time. Like, I just really think it might be kind of the perfect film. So I'm gonna have to put it in. I don't know what else is in the top five, but, like, it's gotta be in the top five of movies that were ever made. I mean, maybe even higher. Maybe it's one of the best. Maybe it's the best movie ever made in history. I don't know.
- [24:51]
B
Well, you know, and I think I say this every time the topic comes up. I don't think this is one of the questions anymore. But for our ten of the week form for the weekly newsletter for tbtl, we ask listeners like a series of. And one of the questions used to be. And by the way, if you want to be a ton of the week, go to tbtl.net and click on the newsletter and you can learn how to do that. But one of the questions used to be, if you could make the world watch one movie, what would it be? And I liked that question because it wasn't like, what's your favorite movie? It's a different question. And as I came up with that question, I remember thinking, well, if I were to answer this, it would be the Princess Bride. I never said that publicly at the time. So many of the responses from our listenership was the Princess Bride. If you had to make somebody or make the world watch one movie, the Princess Bride is just checks a lot of boxes. You know, it's. It's good for people of all ages, but it doesn't talk down to anybody. Yeah. By the way, the ancient booer was played by Marjorie Mason, who was born in 1913.
- [25:49]
A
Whoa. She looks good.
- [25:51]
B
Yeah.
- [25:52]
A
In that movie for being born in 1913. Because, like, I thought, well, they've done a lot of makeup on this. I was assuming again, this is just where I'm at in my life now. I'm assuming everyone is younger than I think they are, and we're just heavily in prosthetics. But she. So that would mean that movie was. What was princess bride? Like?
- [26:10]
B
87.
- [26:11]
A
87, yeah.
- [26:12]
B
So she would have been 70 something. Right.
- [26:14]
A
She looks pretty good, honestly, for being her age. So shout out to her. Anyway. Yeah. Just a phenomenal film, which is something we all know. But I was nice to go back and reconfirm that. Then I watched Spinal Tap, which absolutely holds up. Just like. I mean, is so, so funny and. And. And just amazing that it came from the brain of Rob Reiner and that Also, it was one of his. You were talking about his. His sort of filmography yesterday. I know that he had directed like when he got done with all in the Family, I think he directed like a TV movie that didn't. Wasn't of particular note. But then is it possible that Spinal Tap was the first. First, like kind of big movie he directed?
- [26:59]
B
Here, let me take a look again. I had this list yesterday.
- [27:01]
A
I'm wondering where Spinal Tap falls.
- [27:03]
B
I mean, I know very early because. Let me see here. I think could have been the second one. Sorry, the first one was Stan. This can't be right. Stand By Me. No, that's. I'm looking at the wrong list. Go ahead.
- [27:16]
A
I just think for how early in his career it was, particularly if it was like one of his first big movies.
- [27:21]
B
It was his first. First.
- [27:22]
A
I mean, that is a crazy come out role, right? Because this is an edgy movie. I don't. I don't think there were. They weren't making my. Like, I don't think mockumentaries were really a thing at the time. Like, I think that they. I mean, someone will go find, I don't know, something that somebody did in the 1940s or something. But I. I kind of feel like Spinal Tap sort of invented the genre. And so it's. And it's. It's so perfect the way that they nail this kind of decaying kind of world of this British heavy metal band. And all of this is like the subtlety of. As their tour is falling apart and as they're continuing to get bad news from Fran Drescher and then bad news from their manager. And he has this one time where he goes, Boston is canceled. It's all right, though. It's not a college town.
- [28:05]
B
It's like just such a great.
- [28:06]
A
Just like a throwaway line. Just like it's not a college. Like it was. I'm sure there was a bunch of people that were like, I don't know what this movie is about. We've never seen a movie where, first of all, people are making up the dialogue mostly and where people are pretending to be very serious. But it's a joke, but it's a documentary style. Like it was a. Comedically, I think a big risk to put this out. And it's so, so expertly done that like, I mean, it's just phenomenal. This is the same guy that did, you know, like the Princess Bride and did you know A Few Good Men and did all these, you know, misery and stuff. Like, it's just Crazy how versatile this guy was.
- [28:41]
B
I had to look it up because I thought you were right because I was thinking of another like music mockumentary that I love, that is a take on the Beatles called the Ruddles. And I thought, oh, that stuff come out in the 80s too. But that actually started in the mid-70s. But it was sort of like. But you know what I'm thinking and I could be wrong about this, but I wonder if that style of sort of mockumentary and maybe they weren't even using that term then it does feel sort of British, doesn't it? It kind of feels like that because that was an Eric Idle project with. Along with. I don't know at what point he got involved. I don't mean to make this about a Ruddle. We don't have to have another Ruddles conversation right now. But I think that, you know, the guy from Saturday Night Live, Lorne Michaels had something to do with that eventually as well. Yeah. So anyway, so the, the, you know, yeah, the, the, the format, it was out there. But now that I think about it, I, I can't think of an American mockumentary that would rival this is Spinal Tap before this is Spinal Tap.
- [29:40]
A
I, I've never got. I bet I would have liked the Ruddles. I never got into it because I didn't like the name the Ruddles.
- [29:47]
B
Uh huh. And also like the thing about the Ruddles is like I loved it because when I watched the Ruddles I was in deep like I felt like some of the joke, even though it's an incredibly broad. I mean there's some just slapsticky, you know, just sort of Monty Python, almost silly walky kind of humor in there. It's also really making fun of very specific things in Beatles lore that I just couldn't believe because I do remember there was some. Again Andrew, stop talking about the Ruddles. There was some very fun. I made this real documentary called the Complete Beatles Complete spelled L E A T that I had on vhs and it used to be like the kind of Beatles documentary and the Ruddles was like a parody of that before it came out. I feel like the Ruddles hit all of the beats of the Beatles sort of storyline and sort of story arc and it just always blew my mind at what a not so much prescient but very specific and detailed look at the Beatles it was. But also in a very kind of campy way. I actually haven't seen that in so long. I don't know if it holds up. As much as I loved it when I was a kid, but that's all I got on the ruddles. Thankfully.
- [31:00]
A
On January 21, 1959, the Ruddles Story began at 43 Egg Lane, Liverpool, where Ron Nasty and Dirk McQuickley first bumped into each other.
- [31:10]
B
Of course, they literally bump into each other in the movie, I believe.
- [31:14]
A
I will also say about Spinal Tap that the songs are pretty catchy. Like, the music, the musicality of it is actually pretty good. Like, I was vibing to some of the songs.
- [31:26]
B
What's the early Beatles one that they do before they become sort of the.
- [31:30]
A
Hair metal flowers or something?
- [31:32]
B
Okay, that one about money or something too.
- [31:35]
A
Like, I need give me some money, right?
- [31:38]
B
Yes.
- [31:40]
A
Hey, speaking of, give me some money. Hey.
- [31:51]
B
Thank you, baby.
- [31:54]
A
All right, let's thank some donors. These people have been giving us money and we are very grateful because without the donations of the tens of listeners, from the tens of listeners, there would have beeno TBTL. It's 100% listener subscribers supported podcasting that is going on right now. And we want to thank Julie Tosh, who's in Edmonds, Washington.
- [32:17]
B
Thank you, Julie.
- [32:19]
A
Say hi to Rick Steves when you see him out there. My homie. Did I tell you that I. I got. I stood up is not the right term for it. An Irish good. What do you call it when someone agrees to come out to a second location, but then they don't materialize at the second location?
- [32:36]
B
Like you did to John. Not John Rodrick. You didn't, didn't you? Weren't you saying on air, I hope I'm not outing you here. Weren't you saying that you did this just the other day? You were after Livewire. You were supposed to meet somebody. Wait, was this a. Was this a private conversation? I think you said it on the show.
- [32:56]
A
Yeah, yeah, I did. I was talking about how basically, like, there was an after party after Livewire and I was like, I was almost home, 30 to 40 minutes away from the location, and people were texting me, like, hey, are you coming downstairs for the party?
- [33:09]
B
Yeah. But you.
- [33:10]
A
But not only am I not, I'm.
- [33:11]
B
In bed and somebody did this to you, though?
- [33:14]
A
Yeah, Rick Steves. That's my point, Julie. Out there in Edmonds, in Steve's land. So the story goes, the first time that we had Rick on the show on Livewire two years ago, it was in Seattle, and we had a great time. And he and I, it was kind of. It was funny because we were all hanging out after the show and he was kind of lingering and he was taking pictures with us, and he was chatting and he was in a very friendly mood. And Becca's brother Scott and his wife Tiff were with us, and they're big Rick Steves fans. And finally we all kind of went, not our separate ways, but me and Becca and Scott and Tiff and Addie all went to get some dinner or something, and Scott was like, dude, Rick Steves absolutely wanted to come have a beer with us. And I was like, really? He was like, yeah, how did you fumble that? I was like, I don't know. I didn't even realize that was going on. So this year I asked him on stage, hey, last year, did you want to go have a beer with us? And he said, yes, I absolutely did. So then I was like at the end of the interview, as I'm always searching for a kind of a. I don't know if we can call it a power out, but some sort of button at the end of the interview, I said, well, can we go get that beer? He said, yeah, okay. And so then after the show, so we made plans to go and we went to the Rabbit Box. By the way, what a great place in Pike Place Market. But as we got there, and it was Lindy and Megan came along, and my sister Hannah was there and her husband and some other folks, and we were all gathered around it, and Lindy said, what do you think the chances are of Rick Steve showing up? I said, a thousand percent. It's like he is a good Lutheran man from Edmonds. And he said he would be here.
- [34:47]
B
And.
- [34:48]
A
And. And he would never. He would. He would never not show up. And then I get this apologetic message from him, basically. I think it took him like an hour to get his car out of the parking at Benaroya Hall.
- [34:59]
B
Yes.
- [35:00]
A
And. And he was just very politely saying, you know, we're a little burned out, and we realized how late it is, so we're gonna go home or something. So anyway, I blame Julie Tosh for being from Edmonds.
- [35:10]
B
I don't blame Julie.
- [35:11]
A
The embarrassment that I suffered in front of people. No, I think trying to be a big shot and have Rick Steve show up. Anyway, thanks, Julie. Thanks to Jordan Mobley, who's in Chicago, Illinois.
- [35:20]
B
Hey.
- [35:21]
A
Hey.
- [35:21]
B
Thank you, Jordan.
- [35:23]
A
Going back to Chicago, to my sweet home Chicago on the 15th. I'm doing. Wait, wait there. January 15th. So maybe I'll see you there, Jordan. Cheryl Axel's in Bellevue, Washington.
- [35:36]
B
Hey. Another town known for the blues.
- [35:40]
A
That's right. Hot blues and cold brews.
- [35:42]
B
That's right.
- [35:43]
A
Washington.
- [35:44]
B
That's right. I'm looking forward to. Cheryl.
- [35:46]
A
Looking forward to hot blues and cold brews season, which is to say the summertime. I saw some little. Basically some headline. I didn't read the headline, but it was like. It was a Seattle Times headline about the off season moves the Mariners were making. What. What was happening in the. Like the winter meetings. Like, things happening in the winter meetings that were like, you know, important to the Mariners and Mariners fans. And I was just like, oh, so like a summer day, even just a late spring day. We're talking late May, early June. The lawn is mowed. The Mariners are. Are pulling ahead in the AL West. Andrew. I mean, I'm.
- [36:22]
B
Jorge Polanco is a met. We never processed that. Farewell and thank you.
- [36:28]
A
Rango is gone. Yeah.
- [36:30]
B
No. Yeah.
- [36:32]
A
How are we there, Polanco?
- [36:36]
B
Like a week ago.
- [36:38]
A
How did we not talk about this? Right.
- [36:40]
B
I don't know. Jorge Polanco. Let's see here. Following signing. Yeah, Mets. Yeah, the Mets. You scared me. Your reaction here made me think that I wasn't.
- [36:47]
A
Well, I just can't believe I didn't. I didn't know that had happened. Yeah. And B, it wasn't discussed more on. Unless it was being discussed by Ders. It wasn't being more discussed on the.
- [36:56]
B
Yeah. Come up on the text chain. Yeah. But this was. This was news. Maybe. Let's see here. I feel like it's at least a week old at this point, but there wasn't tons of news about it because I think they. Well, we don't have to get into this now. The Mets gave them a pretty, you know, pretty generous, I would say, two year contract of like, I think 40 million. I think it's like 20 million a year. And I think most Mariners fans are like, we love this guy, but that's a pretty high price tag for somebody who's injury prone and just DHing at this point. And again, love the guy, but it wasn't. It wasn't like it would have been if we had lost Josh Naylor or something like that. I think that we always kind of had a feeling that Polanco is probably not coming back. And I'm guessing the same thing with Suarez as well. Well, yeah.
- [37:41]
A
God bless him for that grand slam.
- [37:43]
B
Yeah.
- [37:43]
A
Gino and the good vibes. But I. I kind of feel like that was. Other than that, not the greatest ROI for us, like he did, kind of. And also with Polanco, with Rango, other than. I just liked typing Rango in all.
- [37:54]
B
Caps into the text when he did good stuff.
- [37:56]
A
I wouldn't be shocked if he fell off in production.
- [37:58]
B
Yeah.
- [37:59]
A
Because like you said, the injury stuff, it felt like he kind of had a magical season. It's ex.
- [38:02]
B
Literally the word I was about to use. I think we had a magical year with him. Yeah.
- [38:06]
A
Yeah. Stephen Baugh is in Portland, Oregon, speaking of magic. Yes, thank you. And is supporting the program. Thank you, Stephen. Thanks also to David Gabala of San Francisco, California.
- [38:20]
B
Look at this. Portland, San Francisco, Bellevue.
- [38:24]
A
We have the best coast being represented. And of course.
- [38:27]
B
Wait, I just called San Francisco. Did I just call San Francisco? The Pacific Northwest? Sorry, I was just sort of thinking northern, west Coast.
- [38:34]
A
I mean, someday. From your lips to God's ears. Let's form some kind of a Cascadia situation, please. I always thought that was craziness, and now I feel like I'd be down for it.
- [38:44]
B
Survival.
- [38:45]
A
Yes, yes, exactly. And then Christopher Borgia is in Seattle, Washington.
- [38:49]
B
Hey, Christopher Boris.
- [38:49]
A
Definitely Pacific Northwest.
- [38:51]
B
Yeah, definitely.
- [38:52]
A
Thank you so much to all of our donors today for making TBTL possible. We absolutely could not do this without you.
- [39:04]
B
Hello and welcome to Top Story.
- [39:07]
A
Is it rude, Andrew, that I am. Even as we are recording this, I'm. I got to be careful how I. There's a. I guess a not. There's a non zero chance that some of the people involved could hear about this. But even as we're recording this, I think there might be an expectation that I am sitting in a conference room or will be arriving soon at a conference room in Portland, Oregon, to be part of a listening session at the local public radio station. And I didn't ever throw my hat in the ring. I didn't ever agree to be part of it. I think that they're debuting some new programming and they wanted to get folks together to listen and give feedback. But, like, I was just suddenly on this list, a pretty short list of people that were, like, looking forward to, you know, having you be part of this thing. And then I got one yesterday that was like, like, lunch will be at noon in this room or whatever. And I was like, I never agreed to any of this. But now if I email in and say, sorry, I'm not going to be there, I feel like I'm putting myself more on their radar. I kind of want to try to play the card of, like, I didn't know it was all of this, of course, belies that what I'm saying to you right now.
- [40:09]
B
Wait, walk this back a little bit, though. So when did you. So you said that you and I Had a little conversation about this off air yesterday because you told me you just gotten another email. You're like, wait, I think somebody's expecting me somewhere tomorrow that I'm not going. But tell me how this unfolded. When did you first start getting emails from. And this is not from your producers at Livewire or anything. This is just from. Yeah, this is just from, you know, the public radio station in Oregon where your show is carried. So that's very much so.
- [40:38]
A
Dynamic, hugely important station to our world.
- [40:40]
B
But you say you never got an email that said, hey, would you like to join us for a listening session and give us feedback about new projects or something along those lines, I'm assuming here we're assembling some folks who ears we want to bend with some new stuff. Is that close enough? Is that ballpark of what they want? Give us some feedback on these things and we'll sort of make it a thing. And you're a big wheel down at the radio cracker factory or whatever they call it. Why does it sound racist when I said it anyway?
- [41:09]
A
So you can call me a cracker.
- [41:12]
B
I think it would be funny if we started. Anyway, so when did you first get an email that said, hey, looking forward to seeing you? Because you say you never got an email that said, well, would you like to join us?
- [41:22]
A
That's the. That's the critical thing. I. Nobody emailed me and said, hey, would you. Do you have the time or would you be interested in being part of this listening group? To which I probably would have said yes out of a sense of, one, wanting to be helpful and two, you know, that is a very important relationship for our radio show Livewire. And so I'd like to, you know, be helpful where I can. I probably would have said yes out of guilt, and now it would be ruing. Ruing that decision.
- [41:48]
B
But you would have gone because you would have made the commitment and.
- [41:51]
A
Exactly.
- [41:51]
B
But I.
- [41:52]
A
No one ever asked me. I just got on this email of like, we're so glad you're gonna be part of this.
- [41:56]
B
About when did you get this first email?
- [41:58]
A
Three months ago.
- [41:59]
B
Three months ago. Oh, and you've been getting little updates trickling in from time to time since then.
- [42:06]
A
Maybe one. Maybe one other email. But then yesterday, the email of laying out where for some reason the fact that lunch is served. I don't know why that really brought it home for me, but I had already missed the window of time I felt where I could have said, oh, I'm not sure, you know, how I ended up on this list, probably why I didn't reach out back then was because if I reached out and said, I'm not sure how I made it on this list, they would have said, oh, okay, well, would you like to be part of it? And then I would have had to say yes or no, which I guess I never really wanted to have to answer in the affirmative. And so I just kind of played it like, like, you know, I don't know what I thought. I was like, that's a future Luke problem.
- [42:42]
B
Just kind of. It doesn't look like anything to me kind of situation. I've been there before.
- [42:46]
A
Just a single tear running down from my, the corner of my eye. And so then yesterday, the email comes out. I can't wait to see you all tomorrow. Lunch will be served at noon, etc. Etc. And then I was like, well, now I'm really stuck. Like, now if I chime in and go, hey, I'm sorry, I don't know how I got on this list, but I'm not coming tomorrow. Somehow that felt worse to me than just no call, no show, which is what I'm.
- [43:11]
B
I don't know. Yesterday, I, I feel like you should have yesterday. Not if I can.
- [43:16]
A
I'm worried. There are name plates.
- [43:18]
B
If I can. Should all over you. Yeah, there's going to be a name plate and it's going to be empty and they're going to do that. They tip the chair. They tip the chair a little bit, but it's a desk chair, so it's going to be a little bit awkward, but they're going to tip the chair.
- [43:29]
A
Careful sitting in those, those, those desk chairs.
- [43:32]
B
You got to be careful. Maybe that's the whole thing.
- [43:34]
A
Series of unexpected events can really cascade from that one prec. Incident.
- [43:38]
B
Don't worry, Luke. We don't think that you set this whole thing up just so that you can look up somebody's skirt. So, yeah, I feel like probably if you weren't getting a lot of emails from these folks, I understand the instinct to not respond to them when it's like months away. Be like, what is this? I don't know what this is. Like, just move on. But then when it's like, hey, lunch is going to be served, I probably would have yesterday been like, hey, I think there's been some confusion here. I don't, I'm not exactly sure what this is referring to. I don't remember signing up for this. And I, and you at this point, it's like the day before in the holiday season, you have total plausible. I don't know if deniability is the right word.
- [44:16]
A
You feel like this conversation is undermining my plausible deny.
- [44:19]
B
Do you want me to beep this all out?
- [44:22]
A
It's like an attorney will say to their client, do not discuss your case publicly. All you're doing is giving this prosecution ammo. That's exactly what I'm doing here. This is why you don't do this. Yeah, I, I. I woke up this morning with a fear in my heart that there are somehow not only name tags, but, like I said, that little. Yeah, what do you call that little triangular. Like a triangular piece of paper that's sitting in front of a chair in a conference room that says Luke Burbank.
- [44:48]
B
Yeah.
- [44:48]
A
And that is going to really highlight my absence.
- [44:50]
B
Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to think other Lukes that they could maybe swap in there. Like, just, like, cross Luke Russert would be a good one. Sure.
- [45:00]
A
Huh. There's another Luke on NPR now, too. Forget his last name. But he's. He's like a congressional reporter.
- [45:07]
B
Do I even take care of him? You want me to take care of him?
- [45:10]
A
No, no, that's. That's fine. You know what? Honestly, at this point, if he could just show up at OPB right now and cover for me, he's aces by me. The other story that I. Well, wait.
- [45:21]
B
What are you gonna do? We don't have. I need some closure on that.
- [45:23]
A
I'm doing nothing. I'm doing this.
- [45:26]
B
We're just gonna find out.
- [45:28]
A
What am I gonna. I mean, it's happening. It's. They've already noted my.
- [45:32]
B
Oh, God, this is making me feel bad. It's giving me a bad feeling. I don't.
- [45:37]
A
What you're thinking about. It is a bad feeling from Luke. Yeah, I know.
- [45:41]
B
I'm sorry to circle back to it.
- [45:43]
A
I just can. Like, I didn't handle this well.
- [45:44]
B
We haven't handled this conversation well either, because now I just have this feeling of just like, I've put my evil inside you. Yeah. Just like this sort of like, very loose thread that is just dangling in our day now. You've.
- [45:56]
A
I mean, the good news is, here's what I would say is a positive. I haven't received, like, where are you? Email. So I'm feeling like the, you know, they've. They've. They've emotionally processed my absence and are all moving on and are doing just fine without me, thank you very much. Like, if I got. And I didn't get a message from anyone at livewire saying, hey, did you know about this thing? So I feel like I'm through the.
- [46:20]
B
Okay.
- [46:20]
A
Through the worst of it.
- [46:21]
B
Well, let us know if there are any updates tomorrow.
- [46:24]
A
Do you want to talk about Roomba or the slightly. I don't want to say unhinged, but the slightly dramatic email that I. Or survey response that I filled out for this heating company that I bought these infrared heaters from, that caused them to call me on my phone and leave a message. Here's the message from the guy. He sounds panicked, like, okay, so just can't.
- [46:50]
B
Oh, you're gonna play it now? Can I maybe get a little bit of clarification here? So you've been having some issues with your mini split, which it sounds like you bought one that is broken. This is unrelated to that. These are the infrared heaters that you were singing the praises of to me recently. Right?
- [47:06]
A
And I continue to sing the praises of the heaters themselves. The heaters themselves are pretty great. I've got one in my kind of living room area and then one in both of the bathrooms. Bathrooms on the main floor. And they work very well. The thing that doesn't work at all is this thermostat that I purchased that is supposed to control them. And believe it or not, the mini split in my house, which is not from the same company, the whole sales pitch is you put this thermostat in and it controls all of your infrared heaters, and it controls even mini splits. You just do some kind of a program with it and it'll just basically control everything in your house. You can walk in and it's on the wall. Part of my fear is that if someone's coming over and they don't have the app on their phone to control the heat in my house on these heaters, then what are they going to do? Right? And most people probably wouldn't have this app. So I wanted there to be an easier way for somebody who's maybe house sitting or just visiting and just wants it to be warmer or colder in the house to just go up to like more or less a traditional thermostat and turn it up or down.
- [48:08]
B
Right. That makes sense.
- [48:09]
A
That's what this thing is supposed to be. But it's. It's a. You know, how smart is that? It's a smart car. It's too smart. It's so. It's like this aluminum circle that is. Of course, it doesn't have any tactile real buttons on it. Right. It's just like, it's totally blank unless you touch it in exactly the right spot, at which point it illuminates and then you're supposed to be able to set the temperature or scroll through some different options. Well, one I cannot for the life of me get it to talk to the mini split or even the other heaters really. I can, I guess control that, allegedly control the temperature inside the house, but I can't specifically get it. I can't say like, hey, turn the bathroom off but leave the living room on. Like it doesn't seem to be an option on this thing. And also it just doesn't turn on most of the time. I don't know if it doesn't charge properly. It has to be plugged in all the time. And when I walk over to it and poke it, first of all, you have. Because it goes blank, right. You never know where you're supposed to be touching it to turn it on. It's not one of those things where anywhere on the face will wake it up. You have to hit this specific button which is invisible when it's off.
- [49:16]
B
Does it look like a mirror when it's off? My Google home phone.
- [49:19]
A
Are you looking at this?
- [49:20]
B
No, but that's what my Google home thermostat is. It's actually. It looks nice, but it's. I don't have the same issue with it you do. Mine wakes up right away if you touch the side of it. And by the way, is there any chance that you're supposed to touch the side of it? That's one thing with my Google home that you wouldn't know. It's like you actually. There are no buttons or anything, but you kind of slide your hand gently along the curve on the right hand side of the.
- [49:44]
A
Try that I haven't tried.
- [49:46]
B
Yeah, it's got invisible. It's got invisible buttons and sliders there that literally they do not exist except they recognize your fingerprint. I wonder if that's it.
- [49:56]
A
I don't remember that in the manual, but that could be because I'll tell you, what I've been doing does not seem to work. And I also think that there's some issue with how it is powered up. It's this whole. It's this weird special three little metallic circle thing, you know, that's maybe proprietary to them. And it's magnetized, so it's supposed to stick to the back of this thing. But it never seems to be quite properly seated.
- [50:18]
B
The power cord.
- [50:19]
A
The power cord doesn't seem to really be connected. So sometimes I'll have to take the whole thing off the wall and I'll manually reattach the power. And then it seems to come on. But when it's in its little harness on the wall, it doesn't. There's something off about the whole thing. And by the way, it was like a hundred bucks. And I'm. So the heaters are fine, but this thing is not particularly satisfying. And then Boulder, the company is called Boulder, by the way. They made the mistake of emailing me and asking me how I like my thermostat. And it wasn't just an email. I think it was like they were. They were like, hey, would you like to post on our website about how much you like our product? And I was like, well, I'd like to do the opposite, actually. So they basically sent me an email that was, like, prompting me to go on their website and talk about my experience, you know, give it it one to five stars and talk about how great the product was. I take one.
- [51:12]
B
Would lunch be served.
- [51:15]
A
Sir? We have a name played out for you right now. So I was like, actually, I will be filling this survey slash public comment out, and I will be giving it one star, and I will be saying, this is really lousy. And what I did put in my comment to try to make myself not sound insane was I said, I've actually, the infrared heaters that I bought are called a Kelvin because everything is super clever, right? So it's like boulder, B, O, L, D, R. But then their heaters are called Kelvin with. With like K, E, L, V, n. Because I think, you know, a kelvin.
- [51:46]
B
Is a unit of heat.
- [51:47]
A
But of course, these companies. These companies never want to use all the vowels that God intended. So I was like, I have three Kelvins, and I like them just fine. But this thermostat thing is a bunch of hooey. So then, like, I'm getting a call.
- [52:03]
B
I didn't want to sound crazy, so I said, the thermostat is a bunch of who?
- [52:07]
A
Yeah, I wanted to sound relatable, Andrew.
- [52:09]
B
Yes. I wanted to sound relatable to anybody who would have worn an onion on their belt because it was the fashion.
- [52:15]
A
As was the fashion at the time. So then I get this call. I don't know if I'll even be able to play this. This is Zach calling you from Boulder customer support and in response to your email, and it's that you're having some troubles with your thermostat that you purchased with a Kelvin heater.
- [52:28]
C
So I was just calling a troubleshoot.
- [52:29]
A
I'd really appreciate it.
- [52:30]
C
If you could please give us a call.
- [52:32]
A
I have not gotten.
- [52:33]
B
That's good. Okay. I was geared up to be irritated. They're not saying, hey, hey, we need to talk about this review. You left. This is making us look bad. They're saying, hey, we can help you out with this. Which is. That's a good response.
- [52:46]
A
I've never. It's some sort of white glove service. I think it has to do with the fact that this is not a huge company, you know, and also that they were. They were. They were horrified at my one star review. But it's usually the opposite. Right. It's like you have a problem with something, and then you're trying to get through the help menu and you're trying to get a human being to talk to you.
- [53:05]
B
You.
- [53:05]
A
So I guess my takeaway from this is just write very lousy reviews of these companies.
- [53:10]
B
Yeah.
- [53:11]
A
And then they will come to you.
- [53:14]
B
I went to the dentist the other day, and you're wondering, where is this going? You know how you have pointed out that I've been filling out a lot of customer service? Or, I'm sorry, a customer. Yeah, I guess customer service surveys mostly for the line. Mostly for the. Mostly for the E line. I have nothing but love for my E line. I'm looking to see how I can find this because I think it's part of Google Maps. I am somebody who has a Yelp account. We've talked about that before. My Yelp review. You're a verified Yelp? Verified Yelp reviewer. Every now and then, though, I visit a company and they will, for some reason, encourage me to leave a Google review of something. And, you know, I don't do this very often. Like, every. Every maybe like once a year, I'll leave a Yelp review. And I try to make sure that they're not all negative, you know, and for some reason, I can't find my archive here. I didn't know I was gonna be talking about this, and they're making it difficult to find, but I went to the dentist the other day. Luke, do you know that I've been going to the same dentist for, like, 15 years or something now?
- [54:21]
A
Wow. I didn't know.
- [54:21]
B
Yeah, I'll even give him a shout out here, because I do really like my dentist. Simply dental is the name of the place. It's down at the. At the very bottom of Denny Hill. Denny and Dexter. People know it well. Right across the street from that weird little skate shop. Remember that weird little skate shop that was like a obelisk or Something.
- [54:40]
A
What is that? Well, that's right. Yeah. Well, that's where the elephant car wash used to be when I was a kid.
- [54:45]
B
Yeah, exactly. So direct. If you were standing, waiting for the eight right outside.
- [54:49]
A
It's also where Razzmatazz was the first strip club that I ever went to.
- [54:53]
B
Oh, really?
- [54:54]
A
It was really.
- [54:55]
B
Oh, interesting. I won.
- [54:56]
A
That's.
- [54:57]
B
I wonder if that's where my dental office is now. Because the. I will say the masks that they wear. Skimpy. Very skimpy. Anyway, it is true that, like, I had not, for some reason, I had fallen out of going to the dentist before I moved to Seattle, or maybe it was when I moved to Seattle, but I didn't have insurance for a long time or something. And so by the time I went to get my. And I've always had good teeth. I've never had a cavity or anything.
- [55:21]
A
You do have very nice teeth. I'd like the listeners to know this. The guy's got a great smile, great chompers.
- [55:26]
B
But anyway, so I remember there was a long period of time that I had not gone to the dentist. And then I finally went to this place, simply Dental, and they were like, oh, yeah, wow, you don't have any cavities, but you haven't gone to the dentist in a long time. Your gums are very swollen, et cetera, et cetera. Things that happen when you don't go to the dentist. So they put me on a pretty kind of aggressive. Just like coming in every, like, three months or something to get cleanings and get everything back in shape. And they did. And since then, they're like, why don't you just come in every three months? So I go to the dentist more often than most people, but I'm really scared of getting. I would rather go in four times a year for some, you know, cleanings that I don't love than go in a couple of times a year but then have to have some actual major surgery or minor, you know.
- [56:08]
A
Yeah, you have that mouth of yours.
- [56:10]
B
Yeah, with the. With the other thing that I had going on. So, anyway, point is, I go there quite a bit, and I. When I moved down to LA a couple of, you know, back 10 years ago or whatever, I was down there for about two years, and I never went to the dentist when I was down there again. And I tell people this. This is a true story. When Genevieve told me that she just got accepted for a job back up here in Seattle, and I realized I was gonna be moving back to Seattle, literally the first people I told were Simply Dental. I remember she told me this explains.
- [56:41]
A
I was trying to do the math, like, how could he have the same dentist for 15 years? It's because you returned to care.
- [56:46]
B
Yes, exactly. And all of this is to say, I remember being in LA being like, we're moving back, good, I really need to go to the dentist. And so I called them and then I think I called Nick, my friend and said he moving back. Anyway, the other day I went to the dentist for one of my, you know, multi, multi times a year, check ins and cleanings and the guy, oh, and by the way, when I was leaving, I asked the dental hygienist, I said, hey, do you have any extra toothbrushes and toothpaste I can give out to people who need them, who might not, you know, might be living on the streets or whatever? And he's like, yeah, just tell him the dent dealt, that Simply Dental sent you. And he just took this little white bag and just started shoving tons of toothbrushes and toothpaste in there and everything, which was like, you know, they probably get it free anyway. But I really, really appreciated it because I had asked people in the past and had gotten just blank stares. So anyway, I'm on the bus later that night and I get a text message that says, hey, did you enjoy your time at Simply Dental or whatever? Would you leave us a Google review? And basically I left a review telling that story. I was like, I hadn't gone to the dental dentist. No, I think I kept it kind of short. I just said, I love this place. Been going here for 15 years. When I lived in LA for two years, I didn't get another dentist. And then the first call I made when I realized I was moving back was to my dentist to make an appointment. And I noticed that they are very active with that. Like the owner, whoever is listed as the owner of the account wrote back like, thank you for your loyalty or whatever. Like these companies are really, really pushing for feedback. And then I do think if I had written something like, like, I don't know, man, they're not treating my teeth right or something, I have a feeling they would have tried to make it right. Which is the difference between that. I don't have any problem with that. I have a problem with the companies that are kind of like, oh, you gave us a 4 instead of a 5 star. What can we do to change that? Because it's all just public facing. They don't really care about the service. Some of these companies, they just care about what you say about the service, you know what I mean? But it sounds like in your case they were really interested in making sure that you're getting the most out of this thing. And I'll bet you there might be a misunderstanding, error. It might be something like that.
- [58:53]
A
I wouldn't be surprised. It probably is. I shouldn't have told them that there was a Lego in my corn. Yeah, that was me being untruthful. No, you know what I had to say, like, this company has been pretty responsive. Like because the other thing that happened was when I was out of town and my dad was here, they. One of these heaters were. Was damaged when like FedEx like delivered it to the house. And so then my dad like sent it back or the FedEx guy actually to his credit, noted that the box was damaged and said, okay, we're just going to take this back. And then I was like, oh, well, I'm glad that I guess, you know, I don't have this damaged heater. But I was also like, what does that even mean now who, who's fixing this for me? Is it FedEx? Is it the heater people? Like, what is the story with this thing? Thing? And I did my, my normal thing, which is procrastinated. And then I just got this email from them from Boulder, the company. And they said, and it just said like, we've sent out your, your new heater. And it was like it gave me the price for the new heater and then it just said discount and it was the total price of the new heater. So it was just like, basically we're sending you the same heater that you bought before that showed up damage. We're sending it to you for no cost. And sure enough, it showed up a few days later. So that was actually pretty good of them too. Like I didn't have to to jump through any hoops. They just somehow they worked it out with FedEx and just sent me a new one.
- [60:09]
B
Yeah, that's great.
- [60:10]
A
So they've. I have to say they've been pretty responsive and the technology is pretty cool with these, with these infrared heaters. I'm pretty stoked about them.
- [60:18]
B
So I should give them mind trick. You're explaining to me. It's like you're not warmer. You're just feel warmer.
- [60:24]
A
Somebody emailed me and explained that. Somebody emailed me to explain how it was. What I was saying was wrong. It actually is. And I got too confused, I think.
- [60:34]
B
I.
- [60:35]
A
Thank you for sending. Thank you for sending the email. My small brain Couldn't contain it. Somebody else sent a voice memo. God, this is so. I shouldn't be copying to this, but somebody sent a voice memo trying to explain to me why the heaters here in the studio were throwing the breaker.
- [60:51]
B
Oh, yeah, yeah, I think I heard that.
- [60:53]
A
And I also didn't listen to that because who has three minutes? Maybe I can get AI to transcribe or something. If you left me a voicemail. If you left me a voicemail.
- [61:00]
B
I saw that.
- [61:00]
A
I think I had a voice memo. Oh, you did? Well, what could you. Could you.
- [61:04]
B
I don't. Yes, I'll drift. Yeah, that'll be. My new job is transcribing voice memos. No, I like people leaving voice memos because voice memos are usually more usable on the show. We're an audio medium, so I do like that. But explaining why a breaker got tripped is probably not. It was probably just more informational based for you.
- [61:24]
A
Yeah, and I don't think there's much I can do about it because this place is wired the way it's wired. By the way, I'm using that heater right now. It's not tripping the breaker. I just have to, to. You know what I did, Andrew? I purchased a handsome extension cord. Braided numbers.
- [61:36]
B
Another braided. Yeah.
- [61:37]
A
So I'm, I'm. It is. I am plugged into the outlet that's across the room. But it doesn't look quite as bad to my eye, so.
- [61:42]
B
Good.
- [61:43]
A
That's the solution.
- [61:44]
B
Here I go once again with the email. Every week. I hope that it's from a female. Oh man. It's not from a female.
- [61:53]
A
Oh, all right. Emails of email.
- [61:57]
B
Yeah, I have a voicemail here from Ian in Tacoma and I can't remember exactly the exact details of this other than I remember. I was, I was entertained. To answer that age old question. Are you not entertained? Yeah, I was.
- [62:16]
A
That's December 4th, the Jay Z song. Doesn't he start that with are you not entertained?
- [62:20]
B
Oh, yes, actually I had no idea why you were doing that, but yeah, actually that's. That does fit. Again, that's the Black album, right? I think that came out recently. Yeah, that was my first Jay Z record. And so I have fond memories of being on a peloton type of thing at the YMCA in Concord, New Hampshire, listening to the Black album over and over again as Jay Z intended when he released that record. I want a white guy in his 30s, just like on some sort of an elliptical machine in Concord, New Hampshire at the YMCA demo to this over and over again. Anyway, I mentioned to you a while back on the show, just, it was a quick little mention that I was like I was renting one of those lime bikes and then I was parking it on the street on Aurora, I don't know, a while back, and there was a working girl there and she had. She kind of propositioned me or something. Just said it. Said something. And then I was just like, no, thanks. And we joked around for a second or something. I think that's what prompted this voicemail from Ian, which I'm thinking, you know, because we are talking about a topic here that is adult in nature. I have this flagged as a voicemail that is good for tbtl. Let's hope I'm right.
- [63:32]
C
Hey, Cobras in Tacoma. Andrew's story being propositioned by a woman of the night reminds me of something that happened to me a few months ago. A few months ago, some friends and I went into a golf trip and casino trip out in Sequim and we called an Uber and she let us know that there weren't very many Uber drivers out in Sequim and that she just give us our phone number. Her phone number. So we just give her a call and schedule a ride directly. Later that night we. I reach out to her and she says she's busy but to text tomorrow if we need a. Need a ride. Next day comes, we end up not needing a ride, everything's fine. Around 10:30, 11:00 clock at night, she sends me a text and says, hey, just checking in, see if you need a ride. And if you don't, just so you know, I do some kinky stuff on the side as well and I have never been so baffled and embarrassed. It was such a strange feeling. Anyway, I immediately blocked your number and let my friends know that apparently our Uber driver was also a processor dude. So, yeah, just an interesting little anecdote. Love the show. Thanks.
- [64:52]
A
Yeah, I don't know, I. I would.
- [64:54]
B
I would feel awkward. I don't know if I would block the number.
- [64:56]
A
I would feel flattered.
- [64:57]
B
Yeah, I know. I sort of. Yeah, exactly.
- [64:59]
A
Like, honestly, like, okay, that person is, you know, this is. They're engaging in sex work. They at least deemed me not so gross that they weren't going to tell me about their side hustle.
- [65:08]
B
You and I are very similar.
- [65:11]
A
But flattered.
- [65:12]
B
Yes, exactly. So there is a price. I mean that. Yes, it's gonna cost.
- [65:17]
A
I'm guessing there are other customers that this person chose to not reveal that side of their.
- [65:22]
B
Exactly.
- [65:23]
A
Financial life too. And Ian was. Ian and Ian's friends apparently passed the cut on that. So, you know, I take that as a. I'll choose to take that as a compliment.
- [65:31]
B
Remember, it made me think, although there.
- [65:33]
A
Friendship.
- [65:34]
B
Yes. I want to say that there's no sex work involved here, as far as we know. But yes, I was thinking about our time in friendship with Wisconsin and how we had immediately those more rural areas because Lyft is not such a kind of thriving concern there. If you're able to get some sort of a ride share or some sort of a taxi service, often they'll just say, hey, here's my direct number, call me directly. But, man, that was. We ended up getting abandoned in the small downtown area at the it's five o' Clock Somewhere tavern. Right.
- [66:03]
A
We went there to watch the Mariners play the Milwaukee brewers and get, by the way, destroyed. Yes. And we managed to get a ride from our Airbnb to the Tavern. And we were very friendly with the driver who said, and maybe it was a taxi. Actually, it wasn't an Uber. That was the thing. It was a taxi service because there was no Uber lift out there. And. And we were very, like, insistent, like, okay, well, are we going to be able to get. In fact, I believe. Did I call the service in the first place? And I think I asked the dispatch person, which again, in the olden days, taxi dispatch was like maybe someone at an office, like in the TV show Taxi. It was Danny DeVito behind some kind of chain. Yeah, chain. Cashier's cage type of situation or whatever. This is just somebody's cell phone at their house and they're just the person either who's going to come get you or they're going to tell the one driver, go over to this place. But talking to the dispatch person, I was like, it's very important that we're able to get a ride home because if we can't get a ride from the bar back to our, our, our Airbnb, we just can't even take this trip. Yeah, it's too risky because it was pretty far from where we were staying. And she was like, oh, yeah, no problem, no problem. So then we're checking in with the driver, like, and she, remember, the driver was like, I sleep one hour a day or something.
- [67:14]
B
Like, she's drinking like monster energy drink or something like that.
- [67:18]
A
She was like, you know, yeah, just call me, I'll come get you. You know, and I never sleep and whatever. And then of course, we're ready to leave the bar.
- [67:25]
B
I had that manic energy. Right? Is that how you describe her? Kind of like. Yeah, yeah.
- [67:30]
A
But the other side of that manic coin is the crash. Apparently she had crashed because when we called, we're time to go home. No one's answering. She's asleep. The person who allegedly sleeps one hour a day and who just drives 23 hours and is always ready to go is dead asleep. And like, we were in. And then there was one of those signs at the tavern. I don't know why I'm calling it a tavern at the. At the bar. That was like, a really good idea, actually. And I. I don't know if this is. Is outside of the state of Wisconsin, how typical this is. I don't know if I'd ever seen this before, but basically they have a service that says, if you're too inebriated to drive, we will make sure that somebody gets you home. Which is a great idea, honestly. And we called that number and it didn't work. And I believe the bartender said, oh, yeah, that number hasn't worked for years.
- [68:17]
B
That's right. I'm trying to think. I thought he suggested it, but then maybe he suggested. He suggested it, but then you called it and it was out of. It was literally just like, out of service.
- [68:25]
A
Yeah. And somebody was like, oh, yeah, that.
- [68:26]
B
Hasn'T worked in a long time.
- [68:27]
A
So then we're back to plan A, which is monster energy driver. And then on the, like, 30th call, I'm just war dialing this person now. I get the dispatcher again, I believe, who says, oh, yeah, okay, I'll send her. And I'm like, are you really going to send her? Like, you're our lifeline or something. Yeah, I'll send her. And then, I don't know, another 20 minutes goes by, and then the minivan rolls up and there's our driver, who was dead asleep when we were trying to call and get our ride home.
- [68:54]
B
Was she wearing pajama pants or am I making that part?
- [68:56]
A
Like she might have been wearing pajama pants.
- [68:58]
B
I was in the back seat, so maybe I didn't even see her pants, but, like, I just sort of feel like it definitely had pajama pants energy. And I was kind of like, is this woman even okay to drive at that point?
- [69:06]
A
And I felt bad. I felt bad rousting her to drive our dumb, dumb selves back to the thing. Except I had been very clear about what the, I guess you would say, expectations were. I was very upfront of what we needed. Otherwise I would not have been bothering this poor person to get a ride home for us.
- [69:23]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Anyway.
- [69:25]
A
Well, in all of that, including pajama pants, at no time where we offered any extra services.
- [69:31]
B
No le.
- [69:31]
A
Apparently, that is how homely we are.
- [69:33]
B
At least you and I. You and I weren't. I don't know.
- [69:35]
A
I don't know what. I don't know what goes on with Scarf. He was spitting game that whole trip. He was talking to our server about their Twitch accounts at the. At that Polish place we went to.
- [69:45]
B
Her band. Twitch account banned from.
- [69:48]
A
For yelling at children over the headset.
- [69:50]
B
Right. Like Starfighter. Yeah.
- [69:53]
A
Anyway, all right, that's gonna do it for today's episode of tbtl, but we will be right back here tomorrow with more imaginary radio for all of you. So, please, if you can tune in for that. In the meantime, have a great Tuesday. Take care of yourselves, and please remember, no mountain too tall, and good luck to all.
- [70:14]
B
Power out.